We’ve seen so many stories of Transportation Security Administration agents pilfering, stealing, looting and otherwise stealing from travelers that this entire post could be a series of links. And hey, here’s another one for the pile, because apparently the TSA just can’t resist: An agent in North Carolina is facing accusations that he stole not electronics, not bags stuffed with cash, but just $36 from checked luggage. [More]
transportation security administration
Feds Say They’ll Study Safety Of Airport Full Body Scanners Yet Again
By 12.21.12
If you’re one to eye those full-body scanners warily at the airport, wondering what kind of stuff is zipping and zapping around your organs, you’re not the only one. The Department of Homeland Security is responding to critics who question the safety of the instruments by launching another study to check out the devices used by the Transportation Security Administration. [More]
TSA Apologizes To 11-Year-Old For Detaining Her After Detecting Bomb Residue
By 12.17.12
While it is entirely possible, if not unlikely, that an 11-year-old with brittle bone disease and using a wheelchair could be carrying hazardous materials, the Transportation Security Administration has apologized for detaining a young girl for nearly an hour last week. The girl went through what sounds like quite an ordeal after TSA agents said they detected explosive residue on her hands. [More]
Pennsylvania Surplus Store Lets You Buy Back That Shake Weight The TSA Confiscated
By 12.11.12
You’ve just gone through airport security and you’re feeling bereft, after the Transportation Security Administration confiscated your pocket knife/Shake Weight (yes, really)/Play-Doh or anything that could be used as a weapon. It doesn’t just get dumped in a lost and found bin to collect dust or straight into the pockets of TSA agents, so where does it go? [More]
Police Arrest Man At JFK Airport Because Trying To Smuggle 26 Stun Guns Is Frowned Upon
By 12.10.12
It’s one thing if you somehow forget you’ve got a gun in your carry-on at the airport (although that still seems like a stretch) but moving multiple illegal weapons past security is an entirely different feat. And you probably won’t be successful, as the Transportation Security Administration is usually paying somewhat close attention. Cops say a man tried to scoot a 26 stun guns past security at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport recently. [More]
TSA: Police Arrested 3 People Trying To Take Guns Through Atlanta Airport In 2 Hours
By 12.5.12
Oh, you forgot you had that bottle of shampoo in your carry-on? That’s a little woops. But three different people forgetting they had guns in their bags within two hours at the Atlanta airport? That’s what we call a Transportation Security Administration headache. Police say they arrested three people after discovering firearms in each person’s bag while they were trying to go through the security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. [More]
But Seriously, Folks: Joking That You Have Dynamite At An Airport Won’t Get A Laugh
By 11.27.12
Listen, we’re not trying to nag you or insult your intelligence. But somehow, even despite all our efforts and the fact that the average person has at least a modicum of common sense, people are still making jokes about having explosives at airports. To wit: A man visiting from Guatemala thought it’d be hilarious to tell Transportation Security Administration workers that he had dynamite in his luggage. Face, meet palm. [More]
Flaming Lips Frontman Shuts Down Oklahoma City Airport With Inactive Grenade In His Luggage
By 11.20.12
All it takes is one eccentric band frontman with an inactive grenade to shut down an entire airport and you’ve got a headline. In this case it’s Flaming Lips wackadoodle (and I mean that in the most affectionate way) frontman Wayne Coyne, who caused a bit of a kerfuffle last week when Transportation Security Agents found a bit of tossable weaponry in his luggage. [More]
TSA Will Let You Fly With Your Precious Snow Globes This Holiday Season
By 11.14.12
Until the Transportation Security Administration started cracking down on liquids in carry-on luggage, we never knew how desperately attached travelers are to their prohibited snow globes. It seemed a bit of a cruel ban — who doesn’t love staring at fake snow gently falling on some idyllic scene? But this year, be prepared to celebrate snow globe freedom with the TSA’s updated holiday travel rules. [More]
Posing Problems For PreCheck: Smartphones Can Scan Boarding Pass Barcodes
By 10.25.12
You’ve lost that random feeling, ohh that random feeling, now it’s gone… gone… gone. Security experts say a flaw in airline boarding passes that allows their barcodes to be scanned with smartphones makes the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck system not very useful. If PreCheck passengers can scan their barcodes ahead of time and see if they’ll be screened routinely or [More]
Court Says Berating TSA Officers During A Pat-Down Is Disorderly Conduct, Not Free Speech
By 10.24.12
While we’ve heard about cases where you can say, strip down naked in front of the Transportation Security Administration, an act that a judge found to be protected speech under the First Amendment, it’s a different matter when it comes to using your words to express your thoughts about pat-downs. A mom who reportedly berated TSA officers attempting to pat-down her daughter found that out the hard way. [More]
TSA Wants To Fire 25 Workers, Suspend Another 19 At Newark Airport For Misconduct
By 10.19.12
There’s been plenty of trouble stirring at Newark International Airport these days. In June we saw Transportation Security Administration workers get axed for falling asleep on the job and Air Marshals canned for boozing while training. Those employees will have company soon, as the TSA has proposed the firings of 25 employees and suspensions for 19 others at Newark for alleged misconduct. [More]
Guy Nabbed At LAX In Body Armor Thought He’d Get Past Officials With Bag Full Of Weapons
By 10.10.12
We’re not sure exactly how this guy was planning on getting past airport security, decked out as he was in body armor and flame retardant leggings and carrying a laundry list of air travel no-no’s in his checked luggage: a smoke grenade, three leather-coated black-jack billy clubs, a collapsible baton, a full-face respirator, several knives and a hatchet. You know, no big deal. [More]
JFK Security Employees Say Post-Flight Inspections Aren’t Always Thorough To Avoid Delays
By 9.27.12
You know how when you’re standing around your gate waiting to board, and the previous flight’s passengers come streaming out, and everyone is chomping at the bit and restlessly stirring, waiting for their turn to get on the plane? During that time, security employees are supposed to be inspecting the flight for anything left behind like say, weapons or explosives. But according to John F. Kennedy International Airport security workers, those checks aren’t as thorough as they’re supposed to be. [More]
Cat's Plan To Rid The World Of Mickey Mouse Leads Him To Stow Away In Suitcase For 10 Hours
By 9.14.12
If the rest of my family was taking off for a vacation to Disney World and I wasn’t allowed to go, I’d be terribly put out. But I am not a cat, and so unlike one Bob-bob of Ohio, I can’t climb inside my owner’s suitcase and show up in Florida anyway. Bob-bob’s recent journey took 10 hours, at the end of which his owner was a bit surprised to see him pop out of the luggage. [More]
Maybe The Average Traveler Is Okay With The TSA, But Frequent Fliers? Not So Much
By 9.11.12
We’re up, we’re down, we approve of the job the Transportation Security Administration is doing (or, if you took our poll, 82.5% of our readers who responded actually don’t think so) and now someone else is saying the TSA is mucking it up at our nation’s airports. That’s according to frequent fliers who were asked about the topic in a new survey released today. [More]
TSA Calls Out 6 Boston Bag Screeners For Being Too Distracted By Cellphones To Actually Screen Bags
By 8.28.12
The Transportation Security Administration is gearing up to fire six bag-screening officers at Logan International Airport because they were a bit too distracted on the job to actually perform their duties of carefully checking to make sure said bags weren’t filled with bad stuff like explosives. An additional 14 will be suspended for inattention to duty. [More]
TSA Can't Get Fancy Footwear Scanners To Work So We'll Keep Shuffling Around Barefoot
By 8.24.12
If there’s nothing you hate more than doffing your shoes to walk barefooted or shuffle in your socks through security screenings at the airport, well, we hate to be the ones to tell you, but that’s going to be your reality for awhile. The Transportation Security Administration has been shelling out millions to test not one but four different scanners that would let us keep our shoes on at security checkpoints, and none of them are doing well enough to be used. [More]
